An adrenaline auto-injector, or epinephrine auto-injector (brand name: EpiPen) is a patent-protected medical device used to inject a measured dose of adrenaline. It is often used to prevent anaphylaxis, a severe allergic reaction that can lead to death. As the body shuts down during an episode of anaphylactic shock, the adrenaline revives the patient so they have time to get to a hospital and seek medical help.For beekeepers that are hyper-allergic to honey bee venom, the EpiPen allows them to practice the craft of beekeeping without fear of dying from an errant sting. Some beekeepers who had never historically been hyper-allergic to bee venom, have reported becoming so after they started taking medication such as beta blockers used to control heart disease that also changed the patient's body chemistry and made them more sensitive to bee venom. Thankfully, venom hyper-sensitivity is rare and the majority ofbeekeepers are not deathly allergic to venom. The majority of beekeepers who keep an epinephrine auto-injector around, do so in case someone else has a severe reaction to a sting from one of their bees. As a result, beekeepers were among those who firsttook notice when the cost of purchasing an auto-injector, which had cost less than $100 in 2007, jumped up to over $600 by 2016.
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